Former President of Nintendo America is Iwata's successor

After the shock and saddening death of Satoru Iwata back in July, the company needed to find someone to lead them and take charge. The company mourned the loss of the legend but needed to keep their feet on the ground and find out the successor to Iwata’s legacy. Many speculated it would be Shigeru Miyamoto or Genyo Takeda who were the top execs for Nintendo at the current time. A statement however has finally aired the clouds of doubt amongst the company and fans.

The new President of Nintendo is Tatsumi Kimishima. A board meeting was held this morning to finalize the paperwork and induct Kimishima as the new head of Nintendo. Kimishima’s career has placed him in many managing roles across Nintendo as well as an earlier job as a general manager for The Sanwa Bank in Japan. Tatsumi started his career with Nintendo in 2000 as the Representative Director of The Pokemon Company. He later on took over the role of President of America, being the second person of that position to exist. He later gave up the position to Reggie in 2006 in order to become the CEO for Nintendo of America. From there he went on to become the Managing Director and Human Resources manager for all of Nintendo from 2013 until present. His involvement with the company has been long and interwoven throughout his life. He currently holds 200 shares of the company.

Apart from the induction of the new President of Nintendo, there have been some changes to roles and positions in the company. Shigeru’s title has been changed from a Senior Managing Director to a ‘Creative Fellow’ and Genyo Takeda who was also a Senior Managing Director becomes a ‘Technology Fellow’. These two would become the key pillars of Nintendo; working on software development and hardware development respectively. The term ‘Fellow’ signified that these two were experts and would be heavily focused on their respective areas of expertise.

Only time will tell if Kimishima will have the same level of charisma that Iwata had, or if people can warmly embrace the man as he tries to fill the giant shoes Iwata left him. It might be a bit more challenging as he didn’t come from a developer’s side of game creation like Iwata did. But the time and dedication to the company over the course of his adult life is sure to count for something.

About The Author

G'day! I'm Patrick Nguyen and have been having an affair with video gaming since the ripe old age of 4. Primarily a PC gamer, I dabble with many Nintendo titles and indie games. My utter passion is the continued growth of the gaming scene in Australia! You can reach out to me on my twitter @NguFootman